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Pan in A Minor | 02/21/04

Never let anyone ever, under any circumstance, know that you know how to use Finale. After 18 hours, I'm finally done with the music examples for the dissertation. The good news, if there is any, is that I'm going to claim my $100 today (I'm writing this a day late). Last night I did nothing but work on this (sort of). Jamie's roommate Jenny had her 21st birthday party last night. Chris, Mike and I went. Before the party, Jamie asked me to pick up some stuff from Mike's Beer Barn, so I went through the drive-through in the back. Chompy hates being in drive-throughs and usually cowers on the floor of the passenger seat. This was no exception. What was an exception was that they had a dog and it leapt up onto the window and start barking in my face, scaring the living hell out of me. It was a little bigger than The Ab, maybe weighing 60 lbs tops. Sensing I was scared, Chompy climbed up onto the seat, made no noise, lowered her head and stared. After locking stares for a couple of seconds the bar-dog, Karma, stopped barking and started whimpering. Chompy continued to give the "death stare" as the dog climbed down on the window. Once the guy came back with the wares, the dog jumped up again and barked one last time. This time, Chompy emitted something like a cross between a wildcat and a yeti. This bar-guy, pulled Karma down and told her to shut up before she "[you] get ripped apart". Good ole Chompy. She then went back onto the floor, shaking, just as scared as ever.

The party was kind of lame and one of my former students was there. There was also some dillweed who claimed to know "everything about Led Zeppelin". I was in a particularly feisty mood and was ready to call him out for a Led Zeppelin throw down but it was time to go. Jamie defended him later, much to my dismay. You don't see me wearing Led Zeppelin T-shirts to prove how much I love the band. Let alone the unauthorized T-shirt of "Zoso". What a tool. I hope I don't see this guy again but I'm sure I will. Maybe next time we can settle it like men.

=====Saturday, February 21: Pupdate!=====

I was taking a break from working on the musical examples for the upcoming dissertation when I decided to go online and see where my hits had come from. I found a couple that brought up links to the University of Florida Steelband (the "Sunshine Steelers"). Naturally, I went to their website. Well, well, well. It appears they stole my format. Although the date "says" it was created in April 2000, that is a lie. When I went to design the Mas Site I looked at all the other sites I could find and only one had a steel drum with image mapping. And I can assure you, while I did steal the idea, I stole it from a company and NOT the University of Florida. As if that wasn't insulting enough, I clicked on the link for their "media" files. On that page is a link to their (version of) Pan in A Minor. Honestly, if we had a recording of our first rehearsal, it would have sounded better than this. What the hell are they thinking by posting it online? So people like us can laugh at it? What's even WORSE is they have the funding for THREE god-awful steel bands and they're all terrible! Why not invest in...something else (maybe a new basketball star?). Here are the links. Have a nice laugh.

Sunshine Steelers' rip off my site

Recordings Page (click on "Pan in A Minor" --it's a *.rm file; God knows why they did that. It doesn't save that much space)